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Forest Hills Cemetery

Coordinates: 42°17′42″N 71°06′22″W / 42.295°N 71.106°W / 42.295; -71.106
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Forest Hill Cemetery.
Forest Hills Cemetery
Forest Hills Cemetery entrance in August 2007
Map
Location95 Forest Hills Ave.
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Area250 acres (100 ha)
Built1848 (1848)
ArchitectBillings, Hammatt; et al.
Architectural styleColonial and Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.04001219[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 17, 2004

Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic 275-acre (111.3 ha) rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum, and sculpture garden in the Forest Hills section of Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public municipal cemetery for Roxbury, Massachusetts, but was privatized when Roxbury was annexed to Boston in 1868.

Overview

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Forest Hills Cemetery is located in the southern part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. It is roughly bounded on the southwest by Walk Hill Street, the southeast, by the American Legion Highway, and the northeast by the Arborway and Morton Street, where its entrance is located. To the northwest, it is separated from Hyde Park Avenue by a small residential area. It abuts Franklin Park, which lies to the northeast, and is a short distance from the Arnold Arboretum to the northwest and forms a greenspace that augments the city's Emerald Necklace of parkland.

The cemetery has a number of notable monuments, including some created by notable sculptors, including Daniel Chester French, whose Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor is in the cemetery, and John Wilson, whose Firemen's Memorial is there.

Forest Hills Cemetery is an active cemetery where interments take place on most days of the year.

History

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On March 28, 1848, Roxbury City Council, the municipal board in charge of the area at that time, gave an order for the purchase of the farms of the Seaverns family to establish a rural municipal park cemetery. Inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery, Forest Hills Cemetery was designed by Henry A. S. Dearborn to provide a park-like setting to bury and remember family and friends. In the year the cemetery was established, another 14+1⁄2 acres (5.9 ha) were purchased from John Parkinson. This made for a little more than 71 acres (29 ha) at a cost of $27,894. The area was later increased to 225 acres (91.1 ha).

After operating as the municipal cemetery for Roxbury, Massachusetts for seven years, it was privatized in 1868 as Roxbury was annexed by neighboring Boston.[2] In 1893, the first crematorium in Massachusetts was added to the cemetery, along with other features like a scattering garden, an indoor columbarium and an outdoor columbarium. In 1927, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated here after their execution; their ashes were later returned to Italy.

Notable people interred at Forest Hills

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Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, a monument to Martin Milmore, built by Daniel Chester French between 1889 and 1893
Firemen's Memorial
Gateway and Bell Tower
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  • Large Weeping European Beech inside Forest Hills Cemetery
    Large Weeping European Beech inside Forest Hills Cemetery
  • Copper European Beech by the pond
    Copper European Beech by the pond

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "Forest Hills Cemetery". National Park Service. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. ^ Augustus Charles Thompson, Nathaniel George Clark (1880). Discourse commemorative of Rev. Rufus Anderson: D.D., LL.D. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
  4. ^ The American renaissance in New England (Third series ed.). Detroit: Gale Group. 2001. p. 32.
  5. ^ Fletcher, Ron (2005-02-25). "Who's buried in Dawes's tomb?". Boston Globe.
  6. ^ John H. Eicher; David J. Eicher (2001). Civil War high commands. Stanford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
  7. ^ "Life's Work Ended. – Funeral of Albert Winslow Nickerson at Dedham". The Boston Globe. May 21, 1893. p. 5. Retrieved February 14, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Ranney, Ambrose Arnold". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  9. ^ "Obituary Notes" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 June 1885. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  10. ^ "Early Families of Roxbury, Massachusetts genealogy project". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  11. ^ [1] CWGC Cemetery Report, details obtained from casualty record.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston, Massachusetts).

42°17′42″N 71°06′22″W / 42.295°N 71.106°W / 42.295; -71.106

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